Orbán reveals how long the food price and interest rate freeze will remain in Hungary – UPDATE

Household energy price caps will remain in 2023, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an address to MPs in parliament on Monday.

Last year, Hungary withdrew some of the excess profits made by some companies with a view to helping Hungarian families and businesses by ploughing the resulting revenue into a protection fund paying for energy price caps, Orbán said, adding that this year it is doing the same.

The government has also made energy policy decisions for the long run, upgrading and developing Hungarian industry in the next decade, though this carries with it significant energy needs, he said.

Orbán said there were some who benefited from the energy prices caused by sanctions, such as the large energy companies that had record-high profits around the world. US companies supply gas to Europe at a much high price than they charge at home, which means that the profits resulting from sanctions are paid mostly by European companies and people in Europe, he added.
Hungary’s industry will be modernised and developed at a fast pace in the next decade, and favourable economic policies will be pursued for foreign investors, Orbán said. The new industrial policy will require more energy, which requires speedy decision-making, he added.

Decisions on developing green energy have been made, the Paks nuclear power plant expansion project is planned to be accelerated, while a decision has also been made to introduce gas turbine power stations, he said.

Meanwhile, the prime minister called the Nord Stream blast “a terrorist act”, adding that Hungary and Serbia had made it clear that if this happened in the case of South Stream, “they won’t get away with it”.

On the subject of child protection, Orbán said that in recent weeks the government had dealt with a “shocking and alarming paedophile case”. He said that the number of child pornography cases was “strongly increasing”, adding that “one cannot comprehend with a clear mind how this could happen in Hungary”.

He said “such cases should not happen in Hungary at all, especially not in schools”. The government has given clear instructions to the authorities to uncover all such cases, and heads of schools and local education officials have been instructed to ensure that “all such cases have immediate consequences.”

Orbán said such “atrocious cases” showed that “gender propaganda must not be overlooked”.

Referring to a government survey last year, Orbán said “3.7 million Hungarians rejected gender propaganda”. “Even if the whole world goes mad, and if Brussels excuses the inexcusable, Hungary must stay sane, an island in Europe in which families could safely send their children to school.”

Orbán asked all groups in parliament to cooperate “in the interest of protecting children”.

Meanwhile, Orbán said:

“We Hungarians must always stand up for our co-patriots beyond the borders, especially in times of war.”

“We mourn Hungarians who died on Ukraine-Russian lines of battle,” he said. “It is painful that our co-patriots in Transcarpathia are suffering atrocities — even during the time of war,” he said, adding that their right to use the Hungarian language had been truncated and the directors of Hungarian schools replaced.

Hungary’s diplomacy must make it clear that Transcarpathian Hungarians “deserve more respect”, he said.

Orbán said that during 2023, Hungary would have to cope with the dangers of a prolonged war, inflation, and migration that continued to be a threat at Hungary’s southern borders. Meanwhile, support must be shown for co-patriots beyond the borders, Orbán said. He called on all lawmakers, regardless of party affiliation, to help Hungary overcome this dangerous period.